Voters get creative when writing in names for president

What do Atticus Finch, What do Bill Clinton and Ted Nugent have in common? All of them got write-in votes in the Nov. 6 presidential election in Portage County.

There were a total of 109 write-in votes for president from the county's touch screen voting system. Ron Paul led with 43. Second was Hillary Clinton with seven. (This includes one for Hilary Clinton).

Third, with three votes each, were television satirist Stephen Colbert and rock musician Ted Nugent. The far-right rocker also got one vote for a Ted Nugent-Ozzy Osbourne ticket, which sounds like a great concert line up.

Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania got two votes. Two other unsuccessful GOP presidential candidates -- Herman Cain and John Huntsman -- got one each as did past presidential candidates John McCain and Ross Perot.

Perennial Republican presidential candidate Harold Stassen, who died in 2001 at age 91, got a vote, as did "Donald Trumph," Colin Powell and Clint Eastwood.

The always popular protest candidate Mickey (or Micky) Mouse got only two votes this year while "none of the above" got one.

Tired of the usual candidates, some voters went other ways, voting for Bud Light, Legalize Marijuana and Lindsay Lohan. There was even a vote for Ralph Wiggum, son of Chief Wiggum from "The Simpsons" cartoon.

One voter wrote in the name of Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier who was convicted of releasing classified documents to WikiLeaks, the online self-described not-for-profit news organization that provides a way for sources to publish secret information.

Other voters, who apparently saw no hope in the crop of ballot names and were looking for divine intervention, voted for Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ King of Kings.